To swim the slimy seas the ocean o’er And gag upon the rank and rotten air Filthy with sailor’s curse and foulest swear In search of lost and dearly loved Lenore, To open up the inner sanctum’s door And call (in tongues unfit for holy prayer) Clammy Cthulhu forth from out his lair, Will be to me most pleasant evermore. And like a count who shuns the light of day And moves by candlelight in chilly gloom, Or a black witch that wears a sacred bloom Of belladonna on her breast alway, I live where the scarecrow spies the blackbird’s lark: I live within the cold and rainy dark.